Ben Affleck Responds To His Batman Haters

Ben Affleck finally responded to his critics (i.e. everyone on the internet) on Monday night when appearing on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.’ The talk show host questioned Affleck about his upcoming role as Batman in ‘Batman Vs. Superman‘ and the actor responded, first discussing his hesitation in taking the role and then addressing the backlash.

“They called me up and said, ‘Do you wanna do this?’ And I thought, ‘Well, I’m not 25, man. Are you sure about this?’ ” He stated, before learning that director Zach Snyder was actually seeking an older Batman for this film.

He says the studio tried to warn him about the possible negative reactions to his casting:

“‘Listen, we want to talk to you because people go through this process and it can be trying,’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘We want to show you some of the reactions that past people who have been cast have gotten, like on the Internet and stuff.’ ” He seems to take a “wait and see” attitude though, stating “You can’t say that before a movie comes out. It doesn’t matter what you think then, it matters what you think when you see the movie.”

Then jovially relates his reaction to the social media backlash that erupted once his casting was made public:

“I’m a big boy. They said just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days…. I handle sh**. I’m very tough. I saw the announcement, I look down on the first comment…the first one just goes, ‘Nooooooooo!’ “

He then joked that he told his children “We’re gonna be Luddites for a while, kids.”

To be fair, he seems to be taking everything in stride and the movie hasn’t even begun shooting yet, so we’re all just going to have to wait and see how well he fares in the role. They say no publicity is bad, so if that’s the case, this movie could already be seen as a smash hit.

You can watch the entire interview below:

So what do you think? Do you still hate the idea of Affleck portraying the Dark Knight? Or are you waiting to see the film before deciding? Feel free to comment below!

Jax Motes

Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.